A special education teacher in Whittier who suffered serious injuries in a fall on a local city sidewalk was awarded $.7.5 million Tuesday, Oct. 14, by a Los Angeles County jury.
Attorneys for Justine Gurrola announced on Friday, Oct. 17, that the city had agreed to a $7.5 million settlement during the damages phase of a five-week jury trial for failing to fix an upraised sidewalk that caused Gurrola to trip and sustain severe head and bodily injuries.
The jury unanimously decided that the city of Whittier was at fault for the teacher’s injuries during the first phase of the trial, according Nick Rowley, co-founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice and one of the attorneys that represented Gurrola.
“The City of Whittier failed in its most basic duty to keep its residents safe and cared more about its trees than its people,” Rowley said in a statement.
City officials did not immediately comment on the settlement, indicating they will release an official response to the decision this week. The terms of the settlement remained unclear.
Rowley said the city ignored complaints about upraised sidewalks for years and did not implement an inspection system until it was too late.
“Public safety isn’t just police and firefighters; it’s ensuring public right-of-ways are maintained to prevent injury or worse,” he added. “Waiting until people are seriously hurt or killed before fixing long-standing dangerous conditions is wrong.”
According to court records, on Feb. 25, 2018, Justine Gurrola was walking down a sidewalk with her nephew in the 5900 block of El Rancho Drive when her foot hit an uplift in the sidewalk, causing her to fall forward.
Gurrola reported she reached out her arm to try to break her fall and face-planted on the cement. Her attorneys contend Gurrola’s fall was directly caused by tree roots pushing up the sidewalk concrete from underneath, causing the sidewalk to be uplifted by 2 and ⅛ inches above the ground.
Doctors later diagnosed Gurrola with a fractured wrist and elbow, bruising and abrasions to her left knee, a split lip caused by a tooth and acute nasal bone fractures. A brain CT scan revealed a left front scalp hematoma and Gurrola was later diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, according to court documents.
Gurrola’s attorneys said the city of Whittier had no inspection system in place and only started putting one in place two years after the incident, when the city’s insurance group required an inspection system for the city to renew its insurance.
In more recent years, the city has often said that trees in Uptown Whittier need to be removed as part of a revamp, citing public safety among the reasons.
In court testimony, and according to Gurrola’s attorney, Yolanda Martinez, the city’s director of human resources and risk management, testified that “tree roots that cause sidewalk damage” is the most prominent claim filed against the city.
Rowley, the attorney, reported the tree at the site where Gurrola fell remains, but the raised sidewalk was patched and ramped to create an even slope.
Rowley said the verdict would have been much higher, but Gurrola needed help and didn’t want the case to further drag out with post-trial motions and appeals.
“Justine was content with the city stepping up and accepting responsibility and paying $7.5 million,” Rowley said. “This was never about money for her. It was about making sure that this didn’t happen to anybody else and not allowing what happened to her to be swept under the rug.”
In the seven years since the incident, Rowley said Gurrola has seen numerous doctors for her sustained injuries, including traumatic brain injury, which has, in turn, led to loss of executive function, emotional regulation, and memory capacity.
Gurrola also suffered from acute nasal bone fractures and fractures in her left wrist and elbow. Her injuries to both knees required arthroscopic knee surgery on both knees.
Gurrola has returned to work, although she can no longer serve in the classroom. She works in a more administrative job and still has struggles with that, Rowley said.
“Seven years have been a long road to recovery, physically and emotionally,” Rowley said. “She has recently finished her second knee surgery and is looking forward to affording all of the physical and cognitive therapies she will require to get her life back in order.”